Mindy Kaling Is One of Glamour’s Women of the Year

Because why not her?

“The Lady Boss”—that’s the title Mindy Kaling is given as one of Glamour’s Women of the Year 2014. The actress-writer-producer is in good company with “The Breakthrough” Lupita Nyong’o, “The Advocate” Laverne Cox, “The Women’s Champion” Chelsea Clinton, and others.

Kaling’s “tribe” of fans, as Glamour notes, numbers in the millions: “[They] feel like Kaling, 35, is their BFF—the one you’d take shopping, talk politics with, and call on for backup in minor bar fights.”

Wait, do Glamour readers get in a lot of bar fights?

Of course, we’ve always known how cool Mindy Kaling is. Aside from her bubbly personality and bright style, Kaling is truly a pro at what she does, making “The Lady Boss”—though not the nicest sounding title—still an accurate one. Her Glamour profile boasts praise from several colleagues and contemporaries like Girls star Lena Dunham, who says Kaling’s show The Mindy Project is “essential in its depiction of a skilled career woman.” Ellie Kemper says she’s “like an honor-roll student-athlete ninja warrior.”

That’s not to mention Kaling is whip-smart and handles awkward, uncomfortable situations like a pro. Take, for instance, her “racist, fat-ist” Elle magazine cover earlier this year, a controversy she was quick to settle on Twitter, saying she loved her cover and that was that. Or consider the incident this fall when an older gentleman mistook her for Malala Yousafzai. She played it off with a humorous comment. And perhaps most impressive, Kaling has consistently handled criticism over her duty to represent minorities with grace and eloquence.

Coming up next for “The Lady Boss”: Kaling is working on her second book, Why Not Me?, and Glamour also reports that Kaling wants to write, direct, and star in her own comedy movie.

Too soon to hope for the next When Harry Met Sally?